#58 The Bitter Cup of Gethsemane
Series: Mark
Chuck Sligh
January 23, 2022
TEXT: Mark 14:43-52 - "And immediately, while he yet spake, cometh Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. 44 And he that betrayed him had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, and lead him away safely. 45 And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway to him, and saith, Master, master; and kissed him.
46 And they laid their hands on him, and took him. 47 And one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. 48 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? 49 I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled. 50 And they all forsook him, and fled. 51 And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: 52 And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked."
INTRODUCTION
The last time we were in Mark, we were with Jesus and the apostles at the Last Supper. Today, we move from the Last Supper in the upper room in Jerusalem, outside the Wall of Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley and up to the Garden of Gethsemane.
The events that occurred in that garden have reverberated down through the centuries. The agony Jesus experienced on that awful night, and the dreadful events of the day following, when He was crucified—referred to as “The Passion of Christ,”—have been told again and again in music, books and the arts for centuries. Chuck Swindoll points out that even our language has been affected by these events, giving us such phrases as “he who lives by the sword dies by the sword”; “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” and “sweating drops of blood.” (Charles Swindoll, Jesus: The Greatest Life of All.)
Of course, the most important impact of this night was the RESULT of Jesus’s experience in the Garden of Gethsemane, for it was in that Garden that Jesus fully and finally sealed the eternal plan of the Godhead to pay the penalty for the sins of humanity. The story is one of the most moving scenes in all of literature, and in the Word of God.
As I repeatedly read all three Gospel accounts of it, I, who am not very emotional, could not help but weep and kneel before God in thanks for His sacrifices made for me. Walk with me today in Jesus’ footsteps from the upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane.
I. NOTE WITH ME FIRST THE PLACE WHERE THESE EVENTS UNFOLDED – Verse 32 – “And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit…here, while I will pray.’”
We know exactly where Gethsemane is; it hasn’t changed in 2,000 years. Located outside of Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, Jesus would have passed over the Kidron Brook to get to the Garden of Gethsemane. (See the bottom red line in the slide, only going from left to right instead of the direction of the arrow.)
People would not drink from the Kidron Brook because for one thing, it carried sewage from Jerusalem, but also because excess blood from the animal sacrifices in the temple flowed into the Brook. The historian Josephus tells us that the Kidron Brook often ran red with the blood of the thousands of sacrifices performed at the temple, and this would have been especially true during Passover, which is when these events occurred. I wonder if this fact crossed Jesus’ mind as He crossed the Kidron Brook. How ironic that in less than 12 hours, HIS blood would be shed so that there would never again be a need for animal sacrifices.
The name of the Garden, Gethsemane, is a corruption into English of two Hebrew words, GAT and SHMANÍM (shmah-NEEM). It meant, “oil press” or “the place where olive oil is pressed.” To get oil from olives, they were gathered in rough sacks stacked atop one another. A heavy beam was lowered onto the stack and increasing weight was added to one end of the beam to press the oil from the olives. The more weight applied, the more pressure and the more oil extracted. Again, how ironic….As we’ll see, the three to four hours Jesus spent in the Garden were some of the most stress-filled moments in the earthly life of Jesus. It was like the pressure applied under the heavy weight of an olive press.
The Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives was a favorite place for Jesus to pray. In fact, Luke’s version of the story begins this way, “And he…went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives…” (Luke 22:39) So, it’s not surprising that Jesus went there to pray before His greatest trial.
II. IN VERSES 33-35a, WE SEE THE INTENSE EMOTIONAL TURMOIL JESUS ENDURED – “And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled; 34 And said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death: remain here, and watch.’ 35a And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground….”
It’s hard to imagine the emotional pressure Jesus experienced in the olive press of Gethsemane. Notice the terms used describing Jesus’ emotional torment. Verse 33 tells us that Jesus was “distressed and troubled.” In verse 34, He said, “my soul is very sorrowful, even to death.” Verse 35 says He “fell to the ground” as one staggering to the place of prayer and in such emotional anguish that He literally fell to the ground. Matthew’s version of these events says Jesus “fell on His FACE.” Luke tells us that an angel appeared from heaven to strengthen Him, so weak had he become from the anguish He experienced.
Luke also tells us something peculiar not found in any of the other Gospels. He says, “…his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” A number of articles in medical journals have deduced from this text that Jesus suffered from hematidrósis, described by Dr. David Miller as a rare medical condition that occurs under great emotional stress in which “tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can rupture, thus mixing blood with perspiration.” (http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=11&article=1086)
Describing what Jesus underwent, Bob Deffinbaugh, in his commentary, Luke, the Gospel of the Gentiles, says, “Never before have we seen Jesus so emotionally distraught. He has faced a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee, totally composed and unruffled. He has faced demonic opposition, satanic temptation, and the grilling of Jerusalem’s religious leaders, with total composure. But here in the Garden, the disciples must have been greatly distressed by what they saw. Here, Jesus cast Himself to the ground, agonizing in prayer. Something terrible was going to happen. Jesus knew it, and the disciples were beginning to comprehend it as well.” (Bob Deffinbaugh, Luke, the Gospel of the Gentiles, at https://bible.org/seriespage/garden-gethsemane-luke-2239-46)
III. NOW NOTICE THAT TWO PRAYER MEETINGS WERE GOING ON IN VERSES 35-40 – “And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for you; take this cup away from me: nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.’ 37 And he came, and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? 38 Watch…and pray, that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ 39 And again he went away, and prayed, praying the same words as before. 40 And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) and they did not know how to answer him.”
This was not a joint prayer meeting Jesus was calling. First, He tells THEM to remain where they are and to pray, and then He goes further on and prays by Himself, apart from the disciples. Nowhere does Jesus tell the disciples to pray for Him, as if He were in danger of succumbing to temptation and abandoning the purpose to which He was called, nor does Jesus pray for the disciples. Rather, three times He instructs them to pray for THEMSELVES, that they would not fall into temptation.
They did NOT pray, and they failed in the hour of trial; Jesus DID, and persevered. Jesus prayed for about three agonizing hours, and in the end, He went all the way to the torture, the cross, the death, the tomb…and ultimately to the resurrection, the ascension and the glorification in heaven. I wonder if Peter’s and the other disciples’ actions just a few hours later would have been different if they had taken Jesus’s admonition more seriously and prayed that they would not enter into temptation. But they did not pray, and they failed miserably.
Now I want us to look at Jesus’ prayer: What was He asking of the Father? Was He seeking to change the Father’s mind? Was the fate of mankind hanging in the balance here? Was there a real danger that Jesus might change His mind?
I don’t believe so. The plan of redemption was determined from eternity past, and Jesus, as the second Person of the Godhead, would have known that this was set in stone before Jesus even stepped into time and space on earth. But this is one of those mysterious and incomprehensible interplays between Jesus’ divinity and His humanity that we will never fully grasp in this life.
In His DEITY, He knew the will of the Father, and never was there any doubt that He would do His Father’s will. Yet in His HUMANITY Jesus shuddered at the thought of what was to come. He knew that one of His own disciples would betray Him with a kiss for thirty pieces of silver, equal to about a measly $600 or 500€ in today’s currency, and He knew one of his disciples would deny Him three times. He knew rough hands would seize Him and bind His arms behind his back. He knew He would be tried before a kangaroo court and unjustly judged by evil, ambitious men falsely claiming to act in the name of God. He knew He would be beaten and spit upon, and His beard would be plucked from His face. He knew a crown of long, hard thorns would be thrust down into His head. He realized brutal soldiers would mock and torture Him. He foresaw that His back would be torn by a Roman flagellum, a whip with multiple strands, at the end of which were sharp stones and bones designed not merely to bruise or leave welts, but to lacerate and shred the skin off. He knew nails the size of railroad spikes would be driven into His hands and feet, and a spear would pierce His side.
No wonder, in His humanity, He asks in verse 36, “‘Abba (which means “Daddy”) Father, all things are possible for you; take this cup away from me…’”
Yes, in His divinity He knew what the plan was, and He knew that there was no other way to accomplish the redemption of sinners. And yet, in His humanity, He asks that the cup be taken away from Him. Can you blame Him? No wonder Jesus was under such emotional distress. As GOD, He knew all that was to come to pass, and that it was immutable and unchangeable; as A HUMAN, He trembled at the awful cup He was to bear.
Now why did Jesus refer to His sufferings as “this cup?” The term, “this cup” is found several times in the Old Testament and specifically refers to God’s wrath. (Psalm 75:6-10; Isaiah 51:17, Jeremiah 25:15-20a, Revelation 14:9-11) The cup our Lord dreaded most was the cup of God’s wrath poured out on sin.
The physical sufferings in the hours leading up to the cross and most of what happened on the cross were only a foretaste of the worst suffering Jesus would face. Those were terrifying in and of themselves. But Jesus, who fulfilled God’s Law to perfection and who never even once sinned, went to the cross to pay the penalty of your and my sins. A perfect, infinitely holy God cannot just pass over sin and say, “Aw, it’s okay. Ya’ll just come on up and be with me in heaven for eternity.” The Bible teaches that sin must be judged, and the most horrific thing that happened when Jesus died on the cross is when all our sin was placed on Jesus, and God the Father poured out all His wrath on Jesus for our sin.
When Jesus was on the cross, the most forlorn cry of all was not, “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother,” nor was it “I thirst,” but rather, it was, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?” Right there on the cross, God the Father was separated from God the Son for the first time in all of time and eternity. Right then and there, the Father poured out the full measure of His infinite wrath against our sin on the perfect, holy, righteous, good, pure, innocent Son of God. At that moment, Jesus bore in your place all your sin, and all the just judgment due to you was poured out on Him instead.
1 Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also…once suffered for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God…”
Paul put it this way: “For he…made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
THAT was the awful cup Jesus dreaded the most—the cup of God’s wrath upon Him, and in looking ahead, it made Him tremble.
And yet…and YET, in the very NEXT statement in verse 36, Jesus says to the Father, “nevertheless, not what I will, but what YOU will.” Verse 39 says Jesus returned, “praying the same words as before.”
Matthew and Luke say that Jesus prayed three separate times for God to take this cup from Him, if it were possible, and each time Jesus said, “nevertheless, not My will, but Yours.” As dreadful as the suffering and the cup of God’s wrath was to Him, Jesus did not flinch from carrying out redemption’s plan formed in eternity past by the Godhead. That WAS the will of the Father, and Jesus WOULD do it!
IV. FINALLY, I WANT YOU TO SEE THAT IN VERSES 41-42 JESUS CARRIES OUT THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION. – “And he came the third time, and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough, the hour has come. Behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise up, let us go; see, he who betrays me is here!’”
He says, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Well, fellas, you’ve had enough rest. Time to get up because the time has come, so hold on to your seat belts.”
You see, the end result never was in doubt. In that garden, somewhere in intersection of Jesus’ humanity and His divinity, the questions ceased, the foreboding stopped, and Jesus leaves the place of prayer and does not wait to be captured by the soldiers led by Judas; rather, Jesus heroically goes out to meet THEM. For a few hours He is in Gethsemane in this cosmic battle in His soul, and then suddenly, He turns with what seems now to be anticipation.
This week, as I read this, it made Hebrew 12:2 come alive to me as never before. In verse 1, the writer of Hebrews says that, knowing we have such a great crowd of heaven’s saints surrounding and observing us, we should lay aside our weights and sins that beset us and run with endurance the race that is set before us. Then verse 2 says, “Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
There’s a lot we could take from this verse, but what sticks out to me is that phrase, “who for the JOY that was set before him endured the cross…” Did you see that?—At some point during those three hours in the Garden of Gethsemane, going to the cross changed from being a threat to a JOY to Jesus! Somehow, at some time in the Garden, Jesus became OVERJOYED to die for us! Listen, that would make a Presbyterian shout, amen? Thank GOD for the loving heart of Jesus that made him become “obedient to death, even the death of the cross,” as Paul expresses it in Philippians 2:8.
CONCLUSION
Let’s close by making some observations and personal applications to our lives.
• First, realize that the measure of Christ’s agony in Gethsemane is the measure of mankind’s sinfulness and of its disastrous and painful consequences.
We read the words, “the wages of sin is death,” in Romans 3:23, but these words take on a vastly deeper and more personal meaning in the light of Gethsemane. Folks, Jesus suffered and died to pay for your sin in your place. We’ll never fully understand the EMOTIONAL distresses Jesus endured that night in Gethsemane, nor the PHYSICAL pain He suffered through all the torments of the Passion and the cross, nor the SPIRITUAL agonies He experienced when the Father poured out all His wrath for our sin on Jesus; but what we can do is two things:
One, we can, like Jesus in the Garden, surrender to God in our lives. If you have been living your life apart from God, why don’t you repent, turn to God and accept His Son as your Savior? That’s why He came and why He died. He surrendered to the will of the Father; will you?
Second, we can bow our heads in humble thanks for such a wise and wonderful God and such a loving and caring Savior. When was the last time you truly worshipped Jesus in spirit and passion? How can you not today, knowing what Jesus has suffered for you?
• My second thought is that Christ’s suffering in Gethsemane is the standard for all suffering.
Do you think you have suffered for God? I challenge you to place your suffering alongside His. Are you experiencing some kind of suffering—emotional, mental, or physical? Listen, I would not denigrate any of the sufferings we go through in this life, but really, whose suffering will ever come close to the sufferings of our Lord?
The best that we can do in our suffering is to gain some sense of fellowship with Christ and His suffering, some minutely small sense of what He underwent for us. Paul says He gave up all His high position in the Jewish faith that he might gain Christ. Why?—He says in Philippians 3:10, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, [now watch this:] AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS, being made conformable unto his death.”
We like knowing HIM; we like knowing the power of His resurrection…not so much the fellowship, or the sharing, in His sufferings. But we should. It would help us love Jesus more and be more thankful, because what we suffer does not even begin to approximate His sufferings. It would help us keep our sufferings in a little better perspective.
• Lastly, in this story, we’re reminded of the tremendous power of prayer.
Prayer, in this text, did not deliver Jesus FROM suffering, but it did deliver Him THROUGH it. So often we pray that God might get us OUT of adversity, rather than THROUGH it. Prayer is one of God’s primary provisions for our endurance and perseverance. His words to His disciples apply to us too: “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”
